Rocky Mountain ATV/MC-WPS-KTM’s Benny Bloss sustained a torn ACL in a practice crash earlier this week and will miss the entire 2019 Monster Energy Supercross season, the team announced Friday night. Bloss is set to undergo surgery and is expected to return for the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.

“Benny has been riding and progressing so well, it’s heartbreaking to Benny, his family, and the team,” said team owner Forrest Butler in a statement. “Benny has been with us since being a rookie in the summer of 2016, and 2019 was really ‘the year’ we were all ready to see what he could do. Really, there isn’t much to say as there are other injured riders too, or ones that have been there. We say it’s not fair, but it's part of the sport and instead of wishing what could have been, it’s time to just focus ahead, get surgery and put in the hard work to be ready for the 2019 Motocross Nationals.”

“It was the silliest crash and there was nothing spectacular about it, extremely frustrating,” said Bloss in a statement. “I landed off a triple, and just went to the inside to make a new line, nothing crazy. I hit a slick spot and just lost the rear end doing the standard slide out, unfortunately, I had my leg fully committed and it got pinned under the handlebar and the ground. I knew I caught it the at a bad angle, and that’s pretty much end of the story—just the worst possible position I could have slid out in, and now it’s off to get my ACL fixed. I am young though, I have a lot of good people and sponsors behind me, I already have surgery scheduled as of today and have my full vision set on making the start of the outdoors.”

With Bloss sidelined for the entire supercross season, the team has signed former 250SX East Region Champion Justin Bogle to fill-in. Bogle, who spent last year with JGR/Yoshimura Suzuki, had put together his own program for 2019 after a deal with Phoenix Racing Honda had fallen through.

“As much as it hurts to watch Benny go down, we are a race team and we were very fortunate to get the opportunity to have Justin come in to join the team for the entire SX series,” said team manager Michael Byrne. “Justin has been a rider I have always been a fan of, I believe has incredible 450 bike skills, and I look forward to seeing what we can build over the course of the season.”

“I am pumped to be able to join the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC-KTM-WPS team,” said Bogle. “I know it’s last minute, and it’s been a bit of a bumpy offseason, but I really couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity. This team is more than proven, the KTM is arguably the best bike out there and I am again just really excited to throw my leg over the bike and get to work in the coming days. Thank you to all of the sponsors of the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC-KTM-WPS team for having me join the team. And I also want to give a special thanks to all of my personal sponsors for being supportive of me taking this opportunity. I truly thank every one of you. Now it’ time to go racing!”